Performance History

This section lists all known performances for which Robert Rauschenberg served as choreographer or as a primary organizer (bold italics), and all performances on which he collaborated (in regular italics). Brackets indicate unofficial or former titles. Chosen primarily for their discussion on Rauschenberg’s contribution, reviews of performances are ordered by date of publication. As some reviews may refer to multiple performances, those given below have been selected and placed within the Performance History as they address the artist’s particular involvement; some reviews may refer to subsequent stagings. The performance history dating through 1997 is based on the version that appears in Walter Hopps and Susan Davidson, Robert Rauschenberg: A Retrospective (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, 1997). Based on new research, the document has been updated by Jennifer Sarathy with staff at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation.

For works choreographed by Rauschenberg:

All sets, costumes, and other stage elements are designed by the artist, unless otherwise noted.

The dates and locations of all known performances of Rauschenberg’s works are given.

Full program information is provided when available.

Subsequent casts of restaged works are provided when information is available

For works by other choreographers:

Performances are listed according to the dates of Rauschenberg’s participation.

If the year of the premiere differs from the year of Rauschenberg’s participation, the year of the premiere is listed in parentheses following the performance title.

For larger programs comprised of multiple performances:

Program titles are underlined when Rauschenberg has broader participation, for example, providing lighting for all performances.

General credits and program information are listed in advance of individual performances.

Specific dates for individual performances in larger programs are provided in parentheses.

Paul Taylor, Circus Polka, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Master Institute Theater, New York, March 15. Costumes by Rauschenberg. Lighting by Marc May and John Robertson. Music by Igor Stravinsky. Performed by Taylor and David Vaughan. Original set by Rauschenberg. Revised version by George Wilson.

Merce Cunningham, Suite for Five in Space and Time, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Ind., May 18. Costumes and lighting by Rauschenberg. Music by John Cage. Performed by Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, Cunningham, Viola Farber, and Marianne (Preger) Simon. Revised version: Suite for Five, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, Jan. 12, 1957: Set and costumes by Rauschenberg. Lighting by Beverly Emmons.

Paul Taylor, Seven New Dances, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92nd Street YM-YWHA, New York, Oct. 20. Artistic collaboration by Jasper Johns and Rauschenberg. Set and costumes by Rauschenberg and Taylor, who is listed under the pseudonym George Tacet. Lighting by Tharon Musser. Epic: Performed by Taylor to automated telephone time announcements; Events I: Performed by Toby Armour, Donya Feuer, and Cynthia Stone to wind sounds; Resemblance: Performed by Taylor to music by John Cage; Panorama: Performed by Armour, Feuer, and Stone to heartbeat sounds; Duet: Performed by Toby Glanternik and Taylor to music by Cage; Events II: Performed by Feuer and Stone to rain sounds; and Opportunity: Performed by Taylor to “noise.”

Merce Cunningham, Labyrinthian Dances, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, Nov. 30. Set and costumes by Rauschenberg. Music composed by Josef Matthias Hauer. Music directed by John Cage, and performed by David Tudor on piano. Dance performed by Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, Cunningham, Viola Farber, Bruce King, and Marianne (Preger) Simon.

Merce Cunningham, From the Poems of White Stone, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Festival of Contemporary Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 14. Costumes by Rauschenberg. Music by Chou Wen-chung. Poems by Chiang Kuei. Performed by Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, Cunningham, Judith Dunn, Viola Farber, and Marilyn Wood.

Merce Cunningham, Gambit for Dancers and Orchestra, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Festival of Contemporary Arts, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, March 14. Set and costumes by Rauschenberg. Music by Ben Johnston. Performed by Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, Cunningham, Judith Dunn, Viola Farber, and Marilyn Wood.

Merce Cunningham, Rune, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Twelfth American Dance Festival, Connecticut College, New London, Aug. 14. Costumes and projection by Rauschenberg. Music by Christian Wolff, performed by David Tudor on piano, and conducted by John Cage. Performed by Carolyn Brown, Remy Charlip, Cunningham, Judith Dunn, Viola Farber, and Marilyn Wood.

Per Olof Ultvedt, Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, and Robert Rauschenberg, untitled performance, Arena Theater on Djurgården, Sweden, May 17. Performance following the vernissage of the exhibition Rörelse i Konsten, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, May 17–Sept. 3.

Niki de Saint Phalle, “tir” performance, Staket sandpit, near Värmdö, Sweden, May 23, during the exhibition Rörelse i Konsten, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, May 17–Sept. 3. Participants, including Pontus Hulten, Billy Klüver, Rauschenberg, and Jean Tinguely, among others, create paintings by firing a rifle at sacks of paint attached to a canvas. The artworks Grand Tir- séance Stockholm and Tir (séance Stockholm) are produced, which are included in the exhibition. Klüver produced a film of the event.

Paul Taylor, Tracer, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Théâtre des Nations, Paris, April 11, 1962. Set and costumes by Rauschenberg. Music by James Tenney. Performed by Shareen Blair, Bettie de Jong, Bonnie Mathis, and Taylor.

1963

Yvonne Rainer, Terrain, Judson Dance Theater, An Evening of Dance, Judson Memorial Church, New York, April 28–29. Set and costumes by Rainer. Lighting by Rauschenberg. Performed by Trisha Brown, William Davis, Judith Dunn, Steve Paxton, Rainer, and Albert Reid.

Robert Rauschenberg, Pelican, Judson Dance Theater, Concert of Dance Number Five, National Arena roller-skating rink, Washington, D.C., May 9. Presented by the Washington Gallery of Modern Art on the occasion of the Pop Art Festival. Lighting for all events by Rauschenberg. Sound for Pelican by Rauschenberg. Dance performed by Carolyn Brown, Per Olof Ultvedt, and Rauschenberg. Subsequent performances: Judson Dance Theater, Dance Concert III, First New York Theater Rally, former CBS Studio, Broadway and Eighty-first Street, New York, May 24–26, 1965: featuring Alex Hay in place of Ultvedt; Five Choreographers in Three Dance Concerts, Rollerdrome, Culver City, California, April 20, 1966, sponsored by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the NOW Festival, National Arena roller-skating rink, Washington, D.C, April 26, 1966.

Robert Rauschenberg, Prestidigitator Extraordinary, The Pocket Follies, Pocket Theater, New York, June 10. Performed by Rauschenberg.

Merce Cunningham, Field Dances, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, July 17. Costumes and lighting by Rauschenberg. Music by John Cage, with David Tudor on piano. Performed by Shareen Blair, Carolyn Brown, Cunningham, and Viola Farber.

Merce Cunningham, Story, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Royce Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, July 24. Set, costumes, and lighting by Rauschenberg. Music by Toshi Ichiyanagi, performed on the piano by John Cage and David Tudor. Dance performed by Shareen Blair, Carolyn Brown, Cunningham, William Davis, Viola Farber, Barbara (Dilley) Lloyd, and Steve Paxton. Rauschenberg creates the Combine Story on stage during the four evenings of performances at the Phoenix Theatre, London, Aug. 10–13.

Merce Cunningham, Night Wandering (1958), Seven Performances, Sixteenth American Dance Festival, Connecticut College, New London, Aug. 16. Lighting and redesigned costumes by Rauschenberg. Music by Nilsson, played by Tudor on piano. Dance performed by Carolyn Brown and Cunningham. [Night Wandering was originally titled Nattvandrare for the premiere, Kungi Teatern, Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 5, 1958, renamed for the Thirteenth American Dance Festival, Connecticut College, New London, Aug. 18, 1960. Research indicates conflicting dates for the redesigned costumes and lighting by Rauschenberg. Sources suggest they may have been redesigned for the Thirteenth American Dance Festival (1960), however, studio photographs and the program do not confirm this information. The Sixteenth American Dance Festival (1963) is the earliest performance with confirmed revisions by Rauschenberg].

Robert Rauschenberg, Shot Put, Judson Dance Theater, Concert for New Paltz, State University of New York at New Paltz, Jan. 30. Lighting for Concert for New Paltz by Rauschenberg, Special Assistance by Steve Paxton. Shot Put performed by Rauschenberg to excerpts from A Lecture on Birds in Sweden by Öyvind Fahlström. Subsequent performances: Surplus Dance Theater, sur+, Stage 73, New York, Feb. 10 and 17; Judson Dance Theater, ONCE Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Feb. 27; Five New York Evenings, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sept. 13; and Sogetsu Art Center, Tokyo, Nov. 20. All performed by Rauschenberg. Five New York Evenings (Sept. 8–14) also included Rauschenberg’s Elgin Tie (Sept. 13); Alex Hay’s Colorado Plateau (Sept. 13); and Paxton’s Jag vill gärna telefonera (I Would Like to Make a Phone Call) (Sept. 13): Performed by Paxton and Rauschenberg. Concert for New Paltz also included (in order of the program): Lucinda Childs’s Minus Auditorium Equipment and Furnishings (1963): Performed by Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Tony Holder, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and Rauschenberg; Deborah Hay’s All Day Dance with Two: Performed by Deborah Hay and Paxton; Childs’s Cancellation Sample: Performed by Childs and Holder; Rainer’s At My Body’s House (1963): music by Buxtenude, J. S. Bach, wireless sound transmission by Billy Klüver, performed by Rainer; Deborah Hay’s They Will [originally Would They or Wouldn’t They] (1963): music by Al Hansen, performed by Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Rainer, and Rauschenberg; Paxton’s Flat: Performed by Paxton; Rainer’s Thoughts on Improvisations (for the painter James Byars) (1963): Performed by Rainer; and Alex Hay’s Colorado Plateau: Performed by Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Holder, Paxton, Rainer, and Rauschenberg.

Alex Hay, Colorado Plateau, Concert for New Paltz, State University of New York at New Paltz, Jan. 30. Lighting for Concert for New Paltz by Rauschenberg. Special Assistance by Steve Paxton. Performed by Lucinda Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Tony Holder, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and Rauschenberg. Subsequent performances: Surplus Dance Theater, sur+, Feb. 10 and 17. Lighting for sur + by Rauschenberg. Performed by Lucinda Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Tony Holder, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and Rauschenberg; Five New York Evenings (Sept. 8-14), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sept. 13: Performed by Fahlström, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Paxton, and Rauschenberg.

Steve Paxton, Proxy (1962), ONCE Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Feb. 27. Organized by the ONCE Group. Performed by Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, and Rauschenberg. Program also included Rauschenberg’s Shot Put. Subsequent performance: Judson Dance Theater, A Dance Concert of Old and New Works, Judson Memorial Church, New York, Jan. 10–12, 1966: Performed by Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, and Rauschenberg.

Surplus Dance Theater, sur+, Feb. 10 and 17, and Exchange, March 2 and 9, Stage 73, New York. Lighting for all events by Rauschenberg. sur+ included Rauschenberg’s Shot Put; Alex Hay’s Colorado Plateau: Performed by Lucinda Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Tony Holder, Steve Paxton, Yvonne Rainer, and Rauschenberg; Deborah Hay’s All Day Dance with Two: set and costumes by Rauschenberg, performed by Deborah Hay and Paxton; Judith Dunn’s Acapulco (1963): Performed by Childs, Dunn, Alex Hay, and Deborah Hay; Paxton’s Flat; Childs’s Cancellation Sample: Performed by Childs and Holder; Robert Morris’s 21.3; Rainer’s Dialogues: Performed by Childs, Dunn, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Holder, Paxton, and Rainer; and Paxton’s FIRST (for Elaine) (1963) (extra performance only Feb. 17). Exchange included Childs’s Pastime, in which Rauschenberg performed one evening; Alex Hay’s Prairie; Deborah Hay’s They Will [originally Would They or Wouldn’t They]; Morris’s Site; Rainer’s At My Body’s House (1963); and Albert Reid’s A Brief Glossary of Personal Movements or The Modern Dance: A Solo: 1. Savings and Loan.

Merce Cunningham, Cross Currents, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Sadler’s Wells Theatre, London, July 31. Costumes by Cunningham. Lighting by Rauschenberg. Music by Conlon Nancarrow. [Primary sources indicate that costumes may have been done by Rauschenberg, however, this is not believed to be true.]

Robert Rauschenberg, Elgin Tie, Five New York Evenings (Sept. 8–14), Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sept. 13. Music by David Tudor. Performed by Rauschenberg with the assistance of museum staff. Five New York Evenings also included Rauschenberg’s Shot Put (Sept. 13); Alex Hay’s Colorado Plateau (Sept. 13); and Steve Paxton’s Jag vill gärna telefonera (I Would Like to Make a Phone Call) (Sept. 13): Performed by Paxton and Rauschenberg.

Robert Rauschenberg, Tango, Sogetsu Art Center, Tokyo, Nov. 20. Performed by Rauschenberg. Music by Junosuke. Program also included Rauschenberg’s Shot Put; Deborah Hay’s Contract: Performed by Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Barbara Lloyd, and Rauschenberg; Steve Paxton’s Carrier: Performed by Paxton; and Alex Hay’s Prairie-For: Performed by Hay.

Robert Rauschenberg, Twenty Questions to Bob Rauschenberg, public dialogue with Yoshiaki Tono, Sogetsu Art Center, Tokyo, Nov. 28. Performed by Rauschenberg with assistance from Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, and Steve Paxton. Rauschenberg responds to questions by creating the Combine Gold Standard on stage.

Trisha Brown, Rule Game 5 (1964) and Deborah Hay, Victory 14 (1964), Dance Concert I, May 5–7. Part of the First New York Theater Rally, former CBS Studio, Broadway and Eighty-first Street, New York, May 1–26. First New York Theater Rally produced by Steve Paxton and Alan Solomon, sponsored by the Pocket Theater, Rauschenberg, and Surplus Dance Theater. Lighting by Bill Meyer and Jennifer Tipton. Rule Game 5 (1964): Performed by Walter de Maria, Alex Hay, Paxton, Rauschenberg, and Joseph Schlichter. Deborah Hay’s Victory 14 (1964): Performed by Brown, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Tony Holder, Lloyd, Paxton, Rauschenberg, and Robbins.

Robert Rauschenberg, Spring Training, Judson Dance Theater, Dance Concert II, May 11–13. Part of the First New York Theater Rally, former CBS Studio, Broadway and Eighty-first Street, New York, May 1–26. First New York Theater Rally produced by Steve Paxton and Alan Solomon, sponsored by the Pocket Theater, Robert Rauschenberg, and Surplus Dance Theater. Lighting by Bill Meyer and Jennifer Tipton. Sound by Dick Robbins. Spring Training: Performed by Trisha Brown, Viola Farber, Deborah Hay, Barbara (Dilley) Lloyd, Paxton, Christopher Rauschenberg, and Robert Rauschenberg. Subsequent performances: ONCE Again Festival (Sept. 17–19), Maynard Street Parking Structure, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Sept. 18; and Concert for Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Center, Sept. 23, both performed by Brown, Lucinda Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Paxton, and Robert Rauschenberg. Concert for Milwaukee also included Brown’s Rule Game 5 (1964): Performed by Brown, Childs, Alex Hay, Paxton, and Robert Rauschenberg; and Alex Hay’s Colorado Plateau (1964).

Robert Rauschenberg, N.Y. 172619, Judson Dance Theater, Dark Horse Concert, surprise performances throughout Dance Concert III, May 24–26. Part of the First New York Theater Rally, former CBS Studio, Broadway and Eighty-first Street, New York, May 1–26. First New York Theater Rally produced by Steve Paxton and Alan Solomon, sponsored by the Pocket Theater, Rauschenberg, and Surplus Dance Theater. Lighting by Bill Meyer and Jennifer Tipton. Sound by Dick Robbins, performed by Ed Iverson. Dark Horse Concert also included Deborah Hay’s Fig: Performed by Alex Hay and Rauschenberg; revised version of Paxton’s Flat (1964): Performed by Suzi Gablik and Rauschenberg; revised version of Alex Hay’s Prairie (1963): Performed by Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Barbara (Dilley) Lloyd, Rauschenberg, and Robert Schuler (May 25 only); and Alex Hay’s The Rio Grande: Performed by Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Lloyd, and Rauschenberg (May 26 only). Dance Concert III also included Rauschenberg’s Pelican (1963), and Judith Dunn’s Speed Limit (1963): Performed by Dunn and Robert Rauschenberg.

John Cage, Talk 1, ONCE Again Festival (Sept. 17–19), Maynard Street Parking Structure, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Sept. 19. Sound accompaniment by David Tudor. Performed by Cage and Rauschenberg. Program also included Rauschenberg’s Spring Training (Sept. 18).

Steve Paxton, Section of a New Unfinished Work: Augmented, Judson Dance Theater, A Dance Concert of Old and New Works, Judson Memorial Church, New York, Jan. 10–12. On Jan. 10: Performed by Brown, Alex Hay, and Paxton; Jan. 11: Performed by Deborah Hay, Paxton, and Rauschenberg; and Jan. 12: Performed by Brown, Paxton and Rauschenberg.

Deborah Hay, site specific performance of Hill (1965), the reflecting pool of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Five Choreographers in Three Dance Concerts, April 22. Performed by Deborah Hay, Steve Paxton, and Rauschenberg.

Robert Rauschenberg, Outskirts, Body, Loeb Student Center, New York University, March 7. Performance series organized by Jon Gibson, sponsored by the N.Y.U. Education Department. Coordinated by Irving Sandler. Set included projection of Rauschenberg’s film Canoe (1966). Performed by Trisha Brown, Lucinda Childs, Alex Hay, Deborah Hay, Barbara (Dilley) Lloyd, Yvonne Rainer, and Elaine Sturtevant. Program also included John Giorno’s Raspberry: Performed by Rainer, Rauschenberg, and Peter Schjeldahl.

Robert Rauschenberg, untitled event [Beer Bottle Band], Performance, International Design Conference Aspen, June 19. Unrehearsed group performance with around fifty volunteers in the main conference tent stage.

“People,” Time (New York) 102, no. 1 (July 2, 1973), pp. 32–33.

1976

Viola Farber, Brazos River, produced for television by the Fort Worth Art Museum and KERA Channel 13, Dallas/Fort Worth. Set and costumes by Rauschenberg. Electronic score by David Tudor. Directed by Dan Parr. Performed by Viola Farber Dance Company members Jumay Chu, Larry Clark, Farber, Willi Feuer, June Finch, Anne Koren, Susan Matheke, Andé Peck, and Jeff Slayton. Previewed at Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, March 28, 1977, and at Galerie Ileana Sonnabend, Paris. Aired on KERA-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth, 1977.

Trisha Brown, Glacial Decoy, Trisha Brown Dance Company, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, May 7. Set and costumes by Rauschenberg. Lighting by Beverly Emmons. Performed by Brown, Elizabeth Garren, Lisa Kraus, and Nina Lundborg. Version with costumes redesigned by Rauschenberg performed at Marymount Manhattan College Theater, New York, June 20–24.

Robert Rauschenberg Foundation

The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation fosters the legacy of Rauschenberg’s life and work. The foundation supports artists, initiatives, and institutions that embody the same innovative, inclusive, and multidisciplinary approach that Rauschenberg exemplified in both his art and philanthropic endeavors.